From Sun Tuzi's mouth, Li Hui learned some general information about the lake bandits on Laoshan Island. There are currently about 500 lake bandits on the island, including their families and detained women and slaves. Among them, there are only about 140 lake bandits.
people.
Li Hui had always wondered why the number of lake bandits was so small. They could definitely expand their manpower. In a few years, they would have at least four to five hundred people. This question has also been answered.
It turns out that it's not that no one has joined. In fact, many people want to join Feng Heizi's group. After all, if they can't defeat them, they can join. At least they can survive and avoid bullying. But Feng Heizi has a rule that scares many people away. Then
It's: If you want to join, you can't express your loyalty with words, but you must submit a certificate of surrender. To put it simply, you must have blood on your hands and a human life on your back.
This alone scares many people away. Joining a gang is one thing, but killing someone is another. Not everyone is a vicious person. Many people join just to make noise and make a living without being subjected to any kind of harassment.
It's just bullying. If they really want them to kill someone, they will naturally refuse.
Feng Heizi naturally did this to make his men loyal to him and impossible to betray. After getting blood on their hands, they would not be able to look back. But this did prevent the number of lake bandits from growing rapidly. Originally there were two hundred
After excluding those who died, injured, and were disabled due to various reasons, there were only more than a hundred gangsters left.
In addition, Li Hui was most concerned about whether there was a large amount of food and supplies hidden in the bandits' nest. Sun Tuzi said that Shuizhai had exploited the people and plundered a large amount of food and supplies in recent years, and there was a special garrison on the island.
The caves are full of grain. The specific quantity and location are enough to feed the lake bandits for decades.
After the news was confirmed, Li Hui was very happy. This meant that the harvest after suppressing the bandits would be huge, and he could quickly devote himself to the work of relieving the people.
Naturally, Sun Tuzi also told the rest of the eyes and ears in the city except himself. He was the leader of all the eyes and ears in the city, so naturally he knew everything about them. He knew where they looked, where they lived, how many people he had killed, and what he had done.
Moreover, Li Hui also learned some of the rules and inside information about delivering news. Except for Sun Tuzi, these eyes and ears in the city were not qualified to deliver news. They were just Sun Tuzi's minions responsible for inquiring about the news. The only people who could deliver the news were
Sun Tuzi did it himself. The reason is very simple. If there are no rules, there will be no rule. If everyone can deliver the message, Feng Heizi will not know who to listen to, which will cause confusion in the message.
In order to avoid confusing the news, or being deceived by others with false news, they agreed on specific marks and locations. For example, the tree hole of this old willow tree was a carefully chosen location. The location is secretive, and there are tree holes where the news can be hidden.
, and it is close to the lake. Three strips of cloth tied to the branches are a sign that there is a message bag in the tree hole.
Sun Tuzi explained that every three days, the brothers in charge of delivering the news in the water village would sail ashore at the reed swamp not far away, then go straight to this place to pick up the news and leave. If the person who received the letter did not see the three cloths,
Then he will turn around and leave, because that means there is no message being delivered.
If the water village has any instructions, they will also leave a message here, and Sun Tuzi will come and get it himself. However, the sign is a bunch of reeds placed on a willow branch.
Li Hui explained that tomorrow is the day when people from Shuizhai come to get the news. If there is a response, someone will send Feng Heizi's response after reading the news tomorrow night. Sun Tuzi must go to the village every day after sending the news.
Please check the reply letter to avoid delaying the communication between the two parties.
After this interrogation, Li Hui knew everything he wanted to know. Sun Tuzi did not give Li Hui or the others a chance to freeze themselves into popsicles. At first, Li Hui asked and he answered. Later, Li Hui asked
He talked eloquently even if no questions were asked, and even learned to draw inferences from one instance to another. He spoke with great enthusiasm, as if he was not being interrogated, but showing off what he knew.
Li Hui was satisfied, but before returning to the city, he decided to check the content of the message sent by Sun Tuzi to determine if there was anything fishy. So he asked the others to stay on the embankment and went to the willow tree to take out the skin bag.
The above content is indeed as Li Hui expected. It is to report the news of last night's fierce battle in the city to Feng Heizi and his gang, and inform Feng Heizi and others that some new women who escaped from the north have arrived in the city. They are all young and beautiful, and they are wealthy.
The family members asked Feng Heizi to lead his men to seize this opportunity to attack the city, kill all the refugee armed forces and the county government's personnel, and snatch the beautiful women back to the village to live a happy New Year for their brothers.
Li Hui sneered secretly, put the skin bag into the tree hole as it was, plugged it with random grass, and used willow branches to sweep away his footprints and return to the embankment.
When leaving, in order to prevent the footprints on the snow from being discovered by the lake bandits who came to get the news, Li Hui asked that all the footprints be swept away. The people who came from the other side of the lake embankment went back along the original road and swept away the footprints.
.
Even the messy area under the dike where the fighting was taking place, Li Hui ordered snow to be taken from the dark places of the ditch and sprinkled over it to make sure it was completely covered.
It was already midnight when the group returned to the county town. Inside the south city gate, Zhou Che and his men were waiting to greet them. Li Hui and Zhou Che had a brief conversation, and the two unanimously decided to launch an arrest operation overnight.
Immediately arrest the list of insiders provided by Sun Tuzi.
Naturally, this was done to keep the next plan a secret. Sun Tuzi had already been captured, so it was impossible to let him go. If other spies became suspicious, the news would probably leak out, alerting the lake bandits, leading to the collapse of the subsequent plan.
Dozens of people were divided into eight teams and acted according to the address list provided by Sun Tuzi. Li Hui was responsible for escorting Sun Tuzi back to his residence in Beicheng to arrest San Baldzi and Zeng Xiaoyi, who lived with Sun Tuzi.
An hour later, the arrest operation came to a successful end. All eleven lake bandit spies in the city, including Sun Tuzi, were captured. Two of them tried to resist, but were killed on the spot by Zhou Che's men.
Li Hui and Zhou Che were interrogated one by one one by one overnight. The purpose of this was naturally to verify the information they confessed one by one to avoid being deceived and concealed by Sun Tuzi. At the same time, it was also necessary to find out whether there were other hidden dangers in the city.
On the other hand, we must also find out their crimes. Because all these gangsters are heinous guys with blood on their hands, their crimes must be examined and the basis for punishing them must be established.
The interrogation ended at dawn. When the sky was dim, Li Hui sent Zhou Che out of the lobby and stood in the snow outside the Yamen. Both of them were a little tired, but the cold air outside lifted their spirits.
"Deputy Commander Zhou, thank you for your hard work. You stayed up all night with me. Please go back and have a good rest." Li Hui cupped his hands and said with a smile.
Zhou Che said with a smile: "Actually, I'm not tired at all. I feel full of energy now, and I can't wait to take the next step immediately and wipe out Feng Heizi's gang in one fell swoop."
Li Hui smiled and said: "That's just a mental excitement. Seeing that things have taken shape and seeing the opportunity to eradicate these gangsters, I am naturally very motivated. But I still need to have a good rest. For two consecutive nights, it was another day of work.
It's a drama, it's about taking people again. If you are not tired, your brothers will be exhausted. Don't forget, if everything goes well, we will have a fierce battle. So, in order for the plan to go smoothly, please take care of yourself.
Have a good rest."
Zhou Che chuckled and said, "We are just following Prime Minister Li's instructions. If Prime Minister Li hadn't strategized, made these plans, and deceived them, I really don't know what to do. Don't worry, I will
Have a good rest. Prime Minister Li also has a good rest. I will go back and report to the commander, and then have a good sleep. If nothing unexpected happens, we should know whether the plan was successful tonight."
Li Hui nodded and said: "I am very confident about this, because we have done what we should do, and Feng Heizi and his gang will definitely take the bait. Deputy Commander Zhou, I believe victory belongs to us."
Zhou Che nodded heavily and said goodbye. After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back, bowed deeply to Li Hui, and whispered: "Li Xian Cheng, Zhou Che admires you very much. It feels good to act side by side with Li Xian Cheng.
This gave me a sense of rebirth and made me feel that everything had a different meaning. Thank you, Mr. Li Xiancheng, for being open and honest with me and for trusting me. Thank you very much!"
Li Hui returned the courtesy and said with a smile: "Deputy Commander Zhou, don't thank me. You should thank yourself. I said that day, you and I will only try our best to do what we can. If we live up to this, we will gain peace and happiness."
.If we can exterminate the lake bandits this time and settle the people and refugees in Chao County, it will be a great merit."
Zhou Che nodded and said: "I understand."
After saying that, he bowed his hands and left quickly through the snow.
Li Hui stretched his waist and looked at the eastern sky. The clouds were dispersing and a touch of color was spreading. It seemed that today was a sunny day after snow. Li Hui was in a happy mood and turned back to the office.
When they arrived at the back hall, A-Zhu had already prepared hot water and towels and hot porridge and rice. After Li Hui washed up, he ate two bowls of hot porridge and went into the room to rest. A-Zhu had just put away the dishes and soaked them.
When he poured a cup of hot water into the room and brought it to Li Hui, he found that Li Hui had already fallen into a deep sleep. He was so tired, and his mental and physical exhaustion made him fall asleep next to the pillow, without any clothes or shoes.
Take off.
Ah Zhu stood with the hot water for a while, then plucked up the courage to step forward, gently remove Li Hui's shoes and socks, cover him with a quilt, and then left quietly.